Coffee Catch-All

wordsmythe wrote:

I refer you to the soccer/rugby gentleman/brute dichotomy.

I play soccer.

Rugby is a thug's sport played by gentlemen, soccer a gentlemen's sport played by thugs.

wordsmythe wrote:

I refer you to the soccer/rugby gentleman/brute dichotomy.

I play soccer.

In sport as in life, the shape of one's balls have little bearing on one's brutishness.

*sips tea*

Mine are dodecahedral.

TMI?

Jonman wrote:
wordsmythe wrote:

I refer you to the soccer/rugby gentleman/brute dichotomy.

I play soccer.

In sport as in life, the shape of one's balls have little bearing on one's brutishness.

*sips tea*

Only in sport will I put my cleats on yours.

*swigs coffee*

I just bought 12 oz of this: http://info.stumptowncoffee.com/coff...

I can't wait to try it! Supposedly, it was roasted just 3 days ago, so it should be perfect.

tuffalobuffalo wrote:

I just bought 12 oz of this: http://info.stumptowncoffee.com/coff...

I can't wait to try it! Supposedly, it was roasted just 3 days ago, so it should be perfect.

Just had some of this at the farmers market, delicious!

jonnypolite wrote:
tuffalobuffalo wrote:

I just bought 12 oz of this: http://info.stumptowncoffee.com/coff...

I can't wait to try it! Supposedly, it was roasted just 3 days ago, so it should be perfect.

Just had some of this at the farmers market, delicious!

I am having some right now. It rocks!

Currently bummed by the news that 90% of Stumptown Coffee has been bought by an investment firm. Not sure what it'll mean in the long run, just hope what happened to Torrefazione doesn't repeat.

jonnypolite wrote:

Currently bummed by the news that 90% of Stumptown Coffee has been bought by an investment firm. Not sure what it'll mean in the long run, just hope what happened to Torrefazione doesn't repeat.

I'm not all that concerned, and I don't think anyone should be up in arms about it. I really only care about their roasting, not the cafes, so that might be a reason for me not to be concerned. In the end, the business has always been there to make money. However, if their coffee bean roasting quality goes bad, I will at least know what to blame, and I will be bummed as well.

Drinking some Stumptown right now so that I don't have to fall asleep at 8:30 on a Friday night. Let's just say it's... delicious.

Anyone know a good place to buy K cups online? Not afraid of buying in bulk.

Coffee pleb here, as in I mostly drink from delis and Dunkin, and only have a mostly unused drip coffee maker at home.

I absolutely love ice coffee but the high caffeine overdose wrecks havoc on my stomach. Is there any naturally low-caffeine coffees around? I saw that Alton Brown episode where he said decaf coffee uses the low quality beans. Are there worthwhile decaf caffeine? I still like some caffeine for the slumps, just not two cups worth of joe.

mooosicle wrote:

Coffee pleb here, as in I mostly drink from delis and Dunkin, and only have a mostly unused drip coffee maker at home.

I absolutely love ice coffee but the high caffeine overdose wrecks havoc on my stomach. Is there any naturally low-caffeine coffees around? I saw that Alton Brown episode where he said decaf coffee uses the low quality beans. Are there worthwhile decaf caffeine? I still like some caffeine for the slumps, just not two cups worth of joe.

These probably won't be as good as the non-decaf roasts, but they definitely won't use low quality beans: http://stumptowncoffee.com/coffees/d...

Darker roasts, Italian, French, Turkish, Espresso style roasts have bolder flavor, and less caffeine. You lose much of the acidity found in lighter roasts that may be unpleasant to the stomach.

How did I not discover this thread before? For the record, I'm...

A french press man.
A home roaster (popcorn popper method).
An Old Bisbee's customer, since they're relatively local, they do free shipping, and the shipping is ultra-quick (see: relatively local).
An overall coffee dork.

KingGorilla wrote:

Darker roasts, Italian, French, Turkish, Espresso style roasts have bolder flavor, and less caffeine. You lose much of the acidity found in lighter roasts that may be unpleasant to the stomach.

This is just plain not true. I'm not sure where this idea comes from-- I've seen it before, it's not just you-- but the caffeine content depends entirely on the type of bean, not how dark it's roasted.

That article is talking about a steam-treating process that reduces caffeine content in coffee. It has a lot to say about why dark-roasted coffee might be better for your stomach than light-roasted-- and it may be right, I don't have stomach acid problems so I've never looked into it-- but at no point does it say anything about dark-roasted coffee that hasn't been treated with solvents to reduce the caffeine content having any less caffeine than light-roasted.

So the takeaway is what anyone could tell you: if you're senstive to caffeine for whatever reason, drink decaf or reduced-caf coffee. No-brainer.

I skimmed

I recommend an aero press, one of the coffee grinders. I think ours is a cuisenart. After trying several different types of coffee, the favorite here is arabica grown in Hawaii on the Big Island. I recommend you look into Pele Plantations. We get the Pele roast which is a medium roast.
Have fun.

mooosicle wrote:

Coffee pleb here, as in I mostly drink from delis and Dunkin, and only have a mostly unused drip coffee maker at home.

I absolutely love ice coffee but the high caffeine overdose wrecks havoc on my stomach. Is there any naturally low-caffeine coffees around? I saw that Alton Brown episode where he said decaf coffee uses the low quality beans. Are there worthwhile decaf caffeine? I still like some caffeine for the slumps, just not two cups worth of joe.

Not many people realise that an espresso based coffee is lower in caffeine than most other types, the longer a coffee takes to make means more caffeine dissolves out of the beans in a filter or French Press. A single espresso Latte has an average of 75mg of caffeine, a filter arabica averages 110mg and a robusta can be as much as 200mg.

Another issue to be concerned about though is lactose intolerance. For a lot of people their latte or cappuccino is the most milk they get so a later onset lactose intolerance can appear to be an intolerance for coffee.

What's reduced caffeine marked on as boxes? I tried entering the actual phrase into amazon and got no real results, and google leads me to a buncha info about decaf. Or is it just particular strains that are already lower in caffeine?

It's not the milk, I still regularly drink milk and I'm fine with it.

I just got an aero press, and so far it's been great for iced coffee. Follow the normal brewing process and then pack as much ice as possible into the glass. Don't forget to add sweetener before chilling. Sugar (I prefer raw sugar in iced coffee) dissolves much more easily in hot liquid.

Every once in a while you'll see bags of coffee beans at the supermarket marked as "half caf," which means that it's undergone pretty much the same caffeine-removing procedure as decaf, but they only took approximately half of the caffeine out. It's not too common, though, since it has all the same down sides as decaf (the decaffeinating process weakens the structure of the coffee bean, making it slightly more difficult to roast properly, especially if you prefer a lighter roast), so there's not much incentive to remove only half the caffeine instead of all of it.

Personally, if I want to limit my caffeine intake without going full decaf, the easiest way I've found is to buy a pound of regular and a pound of decaf and just mix them together. Of course, you'll want to try and find two types of bean that complement each other flavor-wise, which takes a little experimentation.

It's also worth noting that coffee made from Arabica beans (most "gourmet" coffees) is naturally lower in caffeine than that made from Robusta beans (a cheaper-to-grow subspecies mostly used for crapola like Folger's / Maxwell House, often blended with 25% or so Arabica beans for flavor). I'm not sure what goes into Dunkin Donuts' coffee, but if you're used to mostly Robusta coffee or blends, you might notice a difference by switching to 100% Arabica. Might be worth looking into.

I've read that research is currently being conducted into breeding a strand of Arabica that would be even lower in caffeine, close to caffeine-free. It sounds like the results have been promising, but aren't quite ready for the mass market yet. So that might be something to watch out for in the coming years.

KingGorilla wrote:

Darker roasts, Italian, French, Turkish, Espresso style roasts have bolder flavor, and less caffeine. You lose much of the acidity found in lighter roasts that may be unpleasant to the stomach.

mooosicle wrote:

What's reduced caffeine marked on as boxes? I tried entering the actual phrase into amazon and got no real results, and google leads me to a buncha info about decaf. Or is it just particular strains that are already lower in caffeine?

It's not the milk, I still regularly drink milk and I'm fine with it.

another option is espresso, it lacks a lot of the oils that are in coffee making it less harsh on the stomach lining. A friend of mine has crones disease and it is the more favorable method for him to drink coffee if he can at all.

Another option is the Toddy coffee makers. You end up with a less acidic coffee, and it is easily diluted to whatever you prefer.

hbi2k wrote:

Every once in a while you'll see bags of coffee beans at the supermarket marked as "half caf," which means that it's undergone pretty much the same caffeine-removing procedure as decaf, but they only took approximately half of the caffeine out. It's not too common, though, since it has all the same down sides as decaf (the decaffeinating process weakens the structure of the coffee bean, making it slightly more difficult to roast properly, especially if you prefer a lighter roast), so there's not much incentive to remove only half the caffeine instead of all of it.

Personally, if I want to limit my caffeine intake without going full decaf, the easiest way I've found is to buy a pound of regular and a pound of decaf and just mix them together. Of course, you'll want to try and find two types of bean that complement each other flavor-wise, which takes a little experimentation.

It's also worth noting that coffee made from Arabica beans (most "gourmet" coffees) is naturally lower in caffeine than that made from Robusta beans (a cheaper-to-grow subspecies mostly used for crapola like Folger's / Maxwell House, often blended with 25% or so Arabica beans for flavor). I'm not sure what goes into Dunkin Donuts' coffee, but if you're used to mostly Robusta coffee or blends, you might notice a difference by switching to 100% Arabica. Might be worth looking into.

I've read that research is currently being conducted into breeding a strand of Arabica that would be even lower in caffeine, close to caffeine-free. It sounds like the results have been promising, but aren't quite ready for the mass market yet. So that might be something to watch out for in the coming years.

On the last part I found a WSJ article about attempts to make natural gourmet low caffeine coffee. http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1226...

Wow $300 dollar/lb

Or get some of this and die of of over caffeine ingestion!

http://shop.funraniumlabs.com/

I got to try some of this stuff

MrDeVil909 wrote:
mooosicle wrote:

Coffee pleb here, as in I mostly drink from delis and Dunkin, and only have a mostly unused drip coffee maker at home.

I absolutely love ice coffee but the high caffeine overdose wrecks havoc on my stomach. Is there any naturally low-caffeine coffees around? I saw that Alton Brown episode where he said decaf coffee uses the low quality beans. Are there worthwhile decaf caffeine? I still like some caffeine for the slumps, just not two cups worth of joe.

Not many people realise that an espresso based coffee is lower in caffeine than most other types, the longer a coffee takes to make means more caffeine dissolves out of the beans in a filter or French Press.

The caffeine is actually one of the first and fastest things to transfer out. A 30-second press pot brew will have almost the same amount of caffeine as a 5-minute brew. The difference is all the other stuff that makes the coffee darker and "stronger" as it brews. Same with tea.

wordsmythe wrote:
MrDeVil909 wrote:

Not many people realise that an espresso based coffee is lower in caffeine than most other types, the longer a coffee takes to make means more caffeine dissolves out of the beans in a filter or French Press.

The caffeine is actually one of the first and fastest things to transfer out. A 30-second press pot brew will have almost the same amount of caffeine as a 5-minute brew. The difference is all the other stuff that makes the coffee darker and "stronger" as it brews. Same with tea.

Yeah, espresso has less caffeine not because of the brewing time, but because it's traditionally made using darker roasts... which tend to have less caffeine.

ruhk wrote:
wordsmythe wrote:
MrDeVil909 wrote:

Not many people realise that an espresso based coffee is lower in caffeine than most other types, the longer a coffee takes to make means more caffeine dissolves out of the beans in a filter or French Press.

The caffeine is actually one of the first and fastest things to transfer out. A 30-second press pot brew will have almost the same amount of caffeine as a 5-minute brew. The difference is all the other stuff that makes the coffee darker and "stronger" as it brews. Same with tea.

Yeah, espresso has less caffeine not because of the brewing time, but because it's traditionally made using darker roasts... which tend to have less caffeine.

And because of the brewing method, as I understand it. Steam at high pressure is forced through the grounds, which picks up less caffeine than the drip method used in most other brewing techniques.

ruhk wrote:

Yeah, espresso has less caffeine not because of the brewing time, but because it's traditionally made using darker roasts... which tend to have less caffeine.

Except not. At least not in any meaningful sense, since the type of bean you're drinking has an equal or greater effect on the amount of caffeine.